Press corps chaos over Vietnam trip

Viet · Sep 8, 2023

When President JOE BIDEN told donors at an Aug. 8 fundraiser that he would “be going to Vietnam shortly,” it was news to almost everyone.

It was the first time that reporters were hearing of the foreign trip. Even the president’s aides were surprised. Although West Wing officials had been discussing a potential visit, nothing had been finalized.

The president has a habit of revealing information that his aides would prefer he not make public in the more relaxed settings of private fundraisers. This time, however, Biden’s unplanned comments ignited a logistical nightmare.

Almost immediately, reporters began peppering the White House for details. But aides couldn’t offer much guidance with logistics still being figured out. They signaled the Vietnam stop would be tacked on to the end of Biden’s September trip to New Delhi for the annual G-20 meeting, but revealed little else.

Reporters who had been assigned to cover the G-20 were left with uncertain travel plans and a host of questions. Should they also plan to fly to Hanoi? Would it be before or after New Delhi? Would they have enough time to get a visa to Vietnam? And how would Biden make it back to the U.S. in time to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks?

“This White House in particular has been very close to the vest on the scheduling until pretty close to departure,” lamented one White House correspondent.

When the White House formally announced the trip on Aug. 28, it became clear that the press corps wouldn’t be able to cover both the India and Vietnam stops without a charter flight, given the president’s tight schedule and limited commercial options from Delhi to Hanoi. So the White House Correspondents’ Association got to work organizing a charter option.

Charter planes are incredibly expensive (a seat on a 2014 charter plane to cover President BARACK OBAMA’s 9-day Asia trip cost a staggering $60,000 per person) and have been used increasingly less by the press over the past few years as newsrooms tighten their budgets. Many media outlets were leery about spending thousands of dollars to get to Vietnam, especially after Biden abruptly cut short an overseas trip in May that left newsrooms on the hook for the costof a charter flight from Japan to Australia that they never actually took.

At first, the WHCA failed to get the headcount needed after many outlets deemed the Vietnam charter flight too expensive. The flight was called off. There was a sense of resignation throughout the press corps that the Hanoi stop would only be covered by the pool.

But the dynamic shifted once the White House announced that Biden would hold a press conference in Hanoi rather than New Delhi, as the press corps had expected. That made the Vietnam trip much more newsworthy to outlets — and WHCA officers made another effort to revive the charter. They texted reporters, nudging them to lobby their editors to sign off on the expensive flight.

To many journalists, the White House’s decision to host the press conference in Hanoi was a blatant way to entice them to cover the Vietnam stop. And ultimately, it worked. Although the charter price had gone up, enough seats were taken to commission the flight.

The White House pushed back on the notion that any changes made to the press conference were intended to ensure coverage of the president’s Vietnam stop. As one White House official pointed out, the president typically holds a press conference at the end of foreign trips so he can address everything that has happened. The official also said that the White House never confirmed there would be a press conference in India and noted it was normal for elements of a trip to become more locked in once it gets closer.

Still, the episode left some reporters feeling frustrated with the White House and sparked fresh questions about the value of spending thousands of dollars in an age when the president’s press conferences are streamed live.

Some outlets that have traditionally been a part of presidential overseas visits ultimately still opted out of joining the Vietnam leg of the trip.